UN Cultural Diversity Day
FINDING ADVENTURE – Even Amidst Covid-19 – Is it possible?
My heart goes out to all these people suffering, or who have lost people around the globe due to the COVID virus. So much pain and suffering….none of that seems adventurous. I also identify with expats, TCKs, global nomads, diplomats, Embassy staffers, study abroad students, workawayers, housesitters and home-owners displaced around the globe. Hundreds of…
Read More2017 Survey of Repatriating Expats
Repatriation Survey Results By Doreen Cumberford and John Palmer This is a summary of a 2017 survey of over 200 expats who have returned to their home countries. The purpose of the survey was to explore the range of feelings and coping strategies experienced by different groups of expats including missionaries, corporate, educators, students, military…
Read MoreReimagining Re-Entry – Super Self Care
How much Self-Care are you administering in the midst of the Re-entry or Relocation Journey? Time and again, I end up in conversations with people – mostly women I have to say – who are simply working on auto-pilot and tending to everyone else’s needs while quietly whining inwardly. Ultimately, that bubble bursts out, often…
Read MoreReimagine Your Re-entry by Engaging Your Intentions
Three Reasons Why Re-entry Can Be Prolonged and Painful a) Insufficient support All the surveys, studies and research point to the fact that everyone enjoys better results in Re-entry when they are receiving some sort of support. The support can be a family member who really leans in and listens well, an inter-cultural consultant or a…
Read MoreRe-Imagining the Re-entry of Your Life!
Use Your Memories to Leverage Your Future Amidst Re-entry Re-entry can feel like a birth canal – that’s because it is! It’s a process that has pain, relief, trauma and ultimately joy at the end. You are literally are in the throes of birthing the next iteration of YOU. This is huge. 99% of us…
Read MoreAnatomy of a Move
Arriving in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia on St. Patrick’s Day, 1997, I was simply toast – as they say. Four moves in four years, two domestic and two international had squeezed some light out of me. Like a body each move seemed to take on a unique life of its own. Some of the moves were…
Read MoreI WISH I KNEW THEN WHAT I KNOW NOW
Orly airport, outside of Paris, France. A lonely, scared 22-year-old sat on a bench feeling like she had just made the biggest mistake of her life. Distraught, she barely heard the last and final call for her flight to Yaounde, Cameroon, West Africa. She bolted into action and ran like the wind towards a future…
Read More5 Secrets to Calming Re-entry Conflict After Returning Home from Overseas
I felt I was choking – the oxygen I needed was draining out of my body. And yet my body seemed to be alive and well in one country whilst my mind took a detour into what felt like outer space. No worries – except that space felt more familiar, more normal and more real…
Read MoreAnatomy for a Successful Return Home!
I got to thinking about what a great metaphor our skeletal system is for returning home or moving in general. There are lots of moving parts in bodies. Bodies well when they are flexible, strong and healthy. Our bodies house our spirits and require regular daily maintenance. They constantly need movement, feeding and watering just like…
Read More